While this books focuses on making a jack-o’-lantern from beginning to end, it also covers the Halloween traditions of scary decorations and trick-or-treating. Perfect for storytime and a good addition to your Halloween books.

These 10 autumnal titles, while featuring ghosts and goblins, are also full of funny and tender moments that celebrate harvests, families, and child-friendly fun. All are perfect for Halloween sharing.

Although not necessarily modelling ideal parenting, this title is sure to please children whether or not they want a pet of their own. Readers will find Ginny’s adventures and the tone of the text a hoot.

Bateman plays with the frightening horror tropes of isolation and creepy old cabins but gives them a child-friendly spin in the end. Recommended for anyone who wants an eerie tale with a cheery ending.

Part of the “Haunted States of America,” this title isn’t a very engaging contribution to a potentially intriguing series. Readers who really want a scare could check out books by Mary Downing Hahn or Betty Ren Wright.

With a plot and character traits akin to Gary Paulsen’s Hatchet, Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins, and Julia Alvarez’s How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents, this would be an excellent addition to middle grade libraries.

With simple straightforward storytelling and adorable soft-focus watercolor artwork, this picture book will find mass appeal with young children navigating friendship and finding their place in the world.

This simple, gentle story makes for a one-on-one read-aloud, and will easily evoke conversations around a disease, as well as its impact on family relationships, in a way that otherwise may be difficult for young children to comprehend.

Accessible to a wide range of young audiences and military families, this picture book is also a unique and specific recognition of the strength and courage of Indigenous women. A first-purchase for any library.

Frank discussion of sexual assault and harassment make this a better choice for older readers who enjoy sports and Jennifer Mathieu’s Moxie but may not be ready for E.K. Johnston’s Exit, Pursued by a Bear.

Reminiscent of Magoon’s previous title How It Went Down and Ta-Nahesi Coates’s Between the World and Me, this is an important title for public and school libraries interested in thought-provoking portrayals of black life.

Fans will not experience the same impact they got from the reading of traditional dystopias such as Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, Veronica Roth’s Divergent, or Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies. They will, however, question the path that present-day society is traveling down and speculate whether the story is reflective of their unavoidable future.